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Patterns of object play behaviour and its functional implications in free-flying common ravens
Awani Bapat1,2, Anna E Kempf3, Salomé Friry4,5
1Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Djerassiplatz 1, 1030, Vienna, Austria. awani.bapat@univie.ac.at.
Scientific Reports
|January 2, 2025
Summary
Object play in ravens provides environmental information and aids social bonding. This study confirms object play decreases with age but adults still engage, suggesting multiple functions for raven object play.
Area of Science:
- Animal Behavior
- Cognitive Ecology
- Behavioral Ecology
Background:
- Object play in animals is theorized to enhance foraging and tool use.
- In species like ravens, object play may also facilitate social evaluation and bond formation.
- Previous studies were limited to captive settings, necessitating field validation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate object play patterns in free-flying ravens under natural conditions.
- To validate captive-based findings on raven object play.
- To explore the functional scope of object play in a wild population.
Main Methods:
- Observational study of individually marked, free-flying ravens in the Austrian Alps.
- Analysis of two large datasets to quantify object play characteristics.
- Comparison of play behavior across different age classes.
Main Results:
- Object play significantly decreased with increasing age in ravens.
- Ravens showed a preference for prolonged engagement with novel objects.
- Adult ravens were observed engaging in object play, and social/non-social play durations did not differ by age.
Conclusions:
- Raven object play appears to serve multiple functions, extending beyond simple environmental exploration.
- Findings support the hypothesis that object play aids in gathering information about both the physical and social environment.
- The study validates previous captive findings and extends understanding to wild raven populations.
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